Oilers fail to gain in Western race, lose to Ducks

EDMONTON -- Rickard Rakell scored a natural hat trick in the second period for the Anaheim Ducks in a 5-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Edmonton (34-35-9) is eight points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with four games remaining for each team.
"I don't think I've ever done that before (score three goals in a period), it's nice to do that for the first time," Rakell said. "This felt great for our team, we were not happy with how we got pretty much dominated in a 6-1 loss at the Calgary Flames on Friday]. So when we have a good first period like that, we tried to keep it going in the second, and when you get a couple of goals, the whole team feels good and it's much easier to play."
***[WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Oilers highlights]*
Corey Perry and Devin Shore scored, and John Gibson made 30 saves for the Ducks (33-37-10), who have been eliminated from playoff contention.
"We're depleted, that's an understatement," Perry said. "Guys are getting a chance to play bigger roles, bigger minutes, learn what the game is in this league and how to play every single night, and they're getting a great experience for it."

Sam Gagner scored for the Oilers. Mikko Koskinen gave up four goals on 21 shots before being replaced by Anthony Stolarz at 15:13 of the second period. Stolarz made 16 saves.
"It was a tough loss," Gagner said. "We've been playing very important games for a while and our emotional level has been very high. You have to find a way to keep your emotions high even when things go wrong. We didn't do that tonight. It was definitely a frustrating loss."
Perry scored at 15:17 of the first period to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. He got to the puck just inside the Oilers blue line and took a shot from the slot that bounced off Koskinen and into the net.

Rakell made it 2-0 at 1:21 of the second when he scored on the rebound of a Jakob Silfverberg shot.
Rakell scored at 8:48 on a shot from the left face-off circle to make it 3-0. He completed his second NHL hat trick at 15:13 with a shot past Koskinen's glove for a 4-0 lead.
"We haven't had one of these for a long time," Edmonton coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We didn't stay with it. [Gibson] made some big saves in the first period, and a couple went in on us and we were far too easily discouraged, and then we started to try to hit home runs, and it seemed like everything they shot went in the net. You can't win in this league if you're that easily discouraged, and that's what we were."
Shore scored 1:29 into the third period to make it 5-0 on a quick shot following a face-off win by Sam Carrick.

"After the performance last night, I thought we came together as a group and as a team today, and everybody did their jobs, everybody worked hard," Ducks assistant coach Mark Morrison said. "One of the keys for us is that we played four lines and everybody had some even ice time and everyone did their job, which was good."
Gagner scored at 13:09 for the 5-1 final.

They said it

"We have some great young kids in this dressing room, on the ice and off the ice. They come in with the right attitude, they're playing well, and they're doing the right things. That makes the game fun when they can come in and step in and enjoy and really relish in the moment like some of them are. It's a big help for everybody." -- Ducks forward Corey Perry
"It's going to be a long final four games if we play sloppy and careless. We might as well have fun with it and play the right way. Some guys are playing for jobs, some are playing for stats, some are playing to end the season off right to have a carryover into the summer and next year feeling good about themselves." -- Oilers forward Milan Lucic

Need to know

The Ducks made a mistake on the lineup sheet by failing to insert defenseman Jake Dotchin for injured forward Troy Terry. Dotchin had to leave the game, forcing Anaheim to play with five defensemen. … Rakell is the second player in Ducks history to score a natural hat trick in one period. Andrew Cogliano scored three goals in the second period of a 4-1 win at the Phoenix Coyotes on Jan. 31, 2012. … Rakell's first NHL hat trick came in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Oilers on Feb. 25, 2018. … Lucic got his 500th NHL point with an assist on Gagner's goal in the third period.

What's next

Ducks: Host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, SNW, NHL.TV)
Oilers:At the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (10 p.m. ET; SN1, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)